I completely abhor the short-termism in football nowadays. Manchester United plane was a fine example of it. If things aren't going right, it's the players' faults, the manager's fault, the chairman's fault, the fan's fault etc etc. You look at the Manchester United post match thread and have people 'furious' because we lost to a team that finished last season as champions. I don't care if they're having a bad season this season - they still have players above the quality we have and I think the score flattered them and we were unlucky not to score a goal or two more. I know there is an element of shoulda woulda coulda about it, but my point remains.
People could point towards the fact that the fury is the fruit of the frustration of the last few months, losing to teams like Palace, Stoke (convincingly) and Sheffield United isn't ideal of course. I'm not saying Lambert is perfect - of course he isn't. Look to the beginning of the season though when most people said they would like a season where we finish mid-table. It's where we will finish, I'd imagine.
Look at the votes - when we win, 80% of people want him in, when we lost 80% want him out. I'm not going to brand DOL's 'f' word about because it's pointless, irrelevant and insulting, but I think it's such an emotive game that people go with gut instinct on a day-by-day basis. It may be because we have far more coverage of the game rammed down our throats than we did ten years ago, twenty years ago, but either way, we criticise the smallest of things day in, day out.
On top of this, football has changed. We need a Sheikh or a Russian billionaire to waltz into the top four, it would seem. We can all say "We're Aston Villa, we should be higher!" but it's not that easy. Football stinks, it's not going to change and Lambert is not the problem, I'm afraid. He's just one of many managers we'll have over the next few years who can do precisely fuck all to help us improve much from where we are. For every crap defeat against Sheffield United or Bradford, there's a win at Arsenal, or against Chelsea or Man City. Can I see us improving on that in the next few years? No. Can I see fans criticising whatever manager is in charge for not elevating us to a much higher position? Yes. That's not just Villa fans - Spurs fans will be annoyed they can't get into the top four, Sunderland and Newcastle fans will be annoyed they can't get much beyond tenth-fourteenth, I daresay Southampton fans will soon get pissed off that they 'only' finish eighth each year. Football has now got a glass ceiling. It's shit but it's astonishing how quickly I've got used to it.
